The VT Bluegrass Pioneers is an exciting band that unites the talents of some of Vermont’s veteran and best-known bluegrass musicians: brothers “Banjo” Dan and Willy Lindner – co-founders of the prolific and well-traveled Banjo Dan & the Midnite Plowboys, and who, since the band’s retirement have continued their career as the multi-faceted Sky Blue Boys, and Danny Coane, guitarist and dynamic lead singer formerly with such bands as the Throbulators and the Radio Rangers, and, since 1998, with Vermont’s nationally award-winning honky-tonk heroes, the Starline Rhythm Boys. 

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In 2016, the inevitable happened. These three bluegrass stalwarts, who were among the first to play this music in Vermont, teamed up as the aptly named VT Bluegrass Pioneers. Soon they recruited former Plowboy Sam Blagden – an early Vermont banjo player, himself – to join them on bass and tenor harmonies.

Audiences learned quickly that their ardor had never cooled. Still rooted in the hard-driving tradition of first-generation bluegrass, the Pioneers share lead and harmony vocals, and in a unique twist Dan and Danny alternate on banjo and rhythm guitar. Their goal is to find the heart and soul of every song they perform and deliver it with passion to their listeners. Decades in the making, the VT Bluegrass Pioneers is an idea whose time has come.